Ubisoft will never learn. When they took a (short) break between AC games a few games back, I thought it was to build more cohesive, tighter experiences. It seems it was just to Ubisoft some more and we got the biggest game in the series yet, followed up with an even bigger one.
At this point, AC should just take the Elder Scrolls Online route and make a single player-friendly MMO they can continuously expand.
Or make a satisfyingly solid, well paced 40 to 50 hour game.
Note: I have not played this yet. I am trying to restrain myself from getting excited about a new locale/time period when I still have a backlog of AC games that includes the last 4 titles. Got pretty far in Syndicate and need to get back to it. I was so overwhelmed with The Ubi Checklist of Things To Do (and honestly, bored) with Origins and Odyssey at some point that I put them aside, but would like to finish Syndicate and Origins or Odyssey before playing this one.
Ubi games are weird in that they take that conceit - or reality - that the majority of gamers don’t finish games, and front load everything interesting into their gameplay. Odyssey was awesome, but it left basically everything hanging and when it was over I was, to be honest, not even sure that i had even reached the end. It’s like you get a cutscene with the title card again… is this the end, then? Why is there still more “pseudo-main” quest stuff to do then? Wildlands was sort of the same, this Hollywood setup of evil drug cartels worshiping Santa Muerte with lots of high production value cut scenes and then… after dozens of hours of sneaking around bases, it all just sort of peters out.
They basically in these open world games seem to think that what they’re providing you is just a giant park to play in, and the game is sort of built on the assumption that you never want the park to end and it will provide nearly (all but) infinite, repeatable things to do.
What’s with all the people just standing in fields, staring? I thought they were scarecrows initially, but no, they’re actual people, just standing there. Does this game take a horror turn?
I finally got him after about 5 or 6 goes! Re-speced fullly into melee , made sure I slotted a decent rune. It was about the parry as @Bateau said, and keeping away when he switches to the string of unblockable attacks.
Yeah the respec in this game is pretty good, you can just change skills up whenever you like.
The reward was the satisfying feeling of finally seeing that last tick appear… I don’t recall what else. 2 skill points I think, unless those were because I levelled up. Didn’t think I did, but maybe it was just XP.
I wish the armour sets were a little more clustered, I’ve cleared ~7 zones now and I’m still wearing the default raven clan set - fortunately it seems to be one of the most versatile sets in the game so it’s not a big issue.
I’ve also started experimenting with other weapons, someone upthread (@Scrax maybe?) suggested a dagger offhand and while I initially scoffed at the idea since I was enjoying the gratuitous 2h axe violence to the max at the time, I’ve now tried the dagger and hammer combo and found it to be really enjoyable - dagger in particular is monstrous, it seems to have a hidden ability to make the enemies go prone if you land enough hits, and it also works on (some) bosses. It’s dual wield ability is absolutely insane too, you can either go full dps mode while stamina lasts or just get a quick hit and retreat - amazing offhand weapon for sure. For hammer I tried the blacksmith’s hammer and while it was good I’ve decided to go full hipster mode in the end and now I’m using the flail, which pairs pretty well with the dagger, and is flashy to boot. Doing this also made me appreciate the dual swap ability which I never used up to this point. (Un)fortunately the combat is easy enough even on highest difficulty that itallows for experimentation and going for flashy kills instead of building your character as a munchkin. I’m not going to lie, I like it.
The game itself continues to impress with good writing, absolutely stunning (visually :)) vistas, especially at night - earlier I was riding past a bandit camp (some old ruins), it was foggy, and I decided to explore for the fun of it, even though I was on my way to do urgent viking business - and it ended up being a really great experience, with plenty of super fun combat. The whole encounter was memorable in a way that I still to this day remember the bridge over the river with two towers in Skyrim after you make your way out of Whiterun.
For now this game is a strong GOTY contender for me, and I genuinely look forward to see how the story will unfold.
I’ve made it to Sussex, about power level 170 or so. Using full Raven gear with the gorgeous gold axe and a shield. I have a very neat looking scimitar I got from Reda that is a Bear piece, and I may be switching back to full Bear with the Brigandine set to try it out. But Raven is very versatile, oh yeah. I am just too lazy to respec all the time, as there is no ability to just refund one at a time to make adjustments.
As far as story and writing goes, it’s pretty good I’d agree. I like how Eivor starts out pretty brash and full of enthusiasm, and (at least in my mind!) slowly gets more jaded and less idealistic. Probably partly because freakin One Eye is always yammering at her with mystic double-talk.
The game is yet to appear in my account and I still haven’t heard back from Ubisoft support. I doubt I’ll buy anything directly from Ubi Connect again.
I am almost level 80, went north for lulz I think its like 260 difficulty area, found a dozen or so fast travel points along the rivers as I was in Auto-sail mode.
Came across some kids in a village in the north west, helped settle some gridlocked voting issues. CAKE RAIDERS !
